Class Attendance Rate Rises to the 35% Range
On the afternoon of May 9, the Ministry of Education will announce the status of medical students at 40 medical schools nationwide who have not returned to classes, including those who have been held back a year or expelled. With about 60% of medical students still not returning to classes, a large-scale situation in which around 10,000 students are held back is expected to become a reality.
According to the Ministry of Education and other sources, the medical school class attendance rate has risen slightly to the 35% range, up from 26% as of April 17. This increase is mainly due to the fact that most of the 1,916 students who had received notice of impending expulsion from five universities?Konyang University, Soonchunhyang University, Eulji University, Inje University, and CHA University?have returned, as these schools expel students who are absent without leave for more than a month. At Chungnam National University, where students are expelled after two consecutive academic warnings, 70 students from the class of 2024 have also returned. Even though students at all these universities participated in the same class boycott, those at schools with stricter expulsion rules have returned to class.
The majority of students who have not returned are expected to be held back a year. In the education sector, it is estimated that about half of the total 19,760 medical students nationwide will be held back. There are no rescue measures for these students.
After announcing the compiled results today, the Ministry of Education plans to focus on measures to normalize classes rather than on rescue measures for medical students. This is to prepare for a "tripling" situation next year, in which students held back this year will return at the same time, causing students from the classes of 2024, 2025, and 2026 to all take the first-year pre-med course together. Options being considered include giving enrollment priority to the class of 2026 and actively utilizing summer and winter sessions. Many of the students who will be in classes together next year will include not only those held back but also those who received academic warnings for refusing to attend classes. In such cases, students can make up class hours through seasonal semesters and advance to the next grade by taking second-semester classes. By designing separate curricula for those simply held back and those with academic warnings, the confusion caused by tripling can be minimized.
Plans are also being made to fill vacancies caused by expulsions with transfer students. The education sector estimates that the number of vacancies at the 40 medical schools nationwide will exceed 400 this year. Normally, 170 to 200 first- and second-year medical students drop out each year for reasons such as retaking the entrance exam, but this year, due to the increase in enrollment, about 360 students have reportedly dropped out. In addition, a significant number of non-returning students have been expelled. Most of these are from the class of 2023 or earlier. While students from the class of 2023 can re-enter as clinical students after expulsion, those from the classes of 2024 and 2025 would have to re-enter as first-year pre-med students, but there will be no available spots due to the incoming class of 2026 freshmen.
Meanwhile, the Korean Medical Student Association, which represents student bodies at all 40 medical schools nationwide, plans to file a complaint with the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials against Vice Minister of Education Oh Seokhwan and others. The association stated, "The government's ongoing tyranny against students must be corrected."
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